The Infected
by ZombiesXBrainzz
Summary: When the infection finds its way into the safe zone, Aria must find her way to safety from the infection with the help of her newfound friends.
1. Chapter 1

**Oh my gosh I almost forgot the Authors Note, I can't forget that! Its like a small diary where I write out my thoughts, anyway, Here is Aria's Story, some of you may have read Sophia's story, some of you have not, you definitely dont need to read Sophia's first because they're not in any real sequential order. Sophia's story's a good one though, so I mean, after this you can go and read hers... Please?**

 **I wont waste anymore time, Happy 2018 to all my readers and hope this year is a good one for uploading!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~ZombiesXBrainzz~**

 **Chapter 1: Down with the sickness**

"...And that's why you should always wash your hands." The CEDA rep finished his presentation, it was stupid, the whole thing. I didn't mind that college wasn't a thing anymore, I hated going to classes anyway, but it was stupid that they made the campus the safe zone, blocking the students off from the sickness outside, while bringing healthy people in. We were let out of the auditorium out into the courtyard, it was a dismal cloudy day, the kind that made you feel depressed, the sun hadn't shown in weeks but the gray fit the occasion. I headed back to my apartment, my roommates were there making dinner or just talking. Chelsea and I originally lived in the apartment, but when they brought the non-college students onto campus, they were moving more people into the apartments, at least they were my friends.

Jessica came into the room, "Hey Aria, where did you go?"

"I had to go to that stupid recommended presentation bullshit."

"Yeah that was stupid wasn't it?" Her twin brother Jared agreed.

I grabbed the bag of chips from the counter and sat on the couch, "Where's Chelsea?"

"Her and Brendan went out to get some food rations." Jess said, sitting next to me.

"Seriously, this is some real bullshit." I said,

"I think we can all agree, but what are we going to do about it? It's not like we can control the virus."

"Yeah, I heard CEDA is working with the chemistry department to find a cure." Jared said,

"Those halfwits couldn't tell an alkane from an alcohol." Jessica laughed, but only her, "You guys suck." She said.

I stood up, "I'm going to bed, there's no use in griping all night."

"Night." They said as I went to to my room.

I woke up a few hours later to a commotion in the living room, I got out of bed to see what was up. Jessica was yelling at Brendan and Jared was dead on the floor and Chelsea was bleeding, "What the hell happened!?" I asked,

"He killed my brother!" Jessica cried,

"He was bitten and he bit my girlfriend!"

I looked over at Chelsea and noticed she was holding her neck where blood was gushing out. "Shit..." I put my hands on my head, "We have to do something... We have to tell someone!" I said,

"We can't just kill her!" Brendan said,

"Why not? You just killed my fucking brother!" Jess argued,

"Guys, shut up! We have to do something that isn't arguing!"

"We can't help her! She... She's gonna turn into one of those things."

"Not if we get her help now." Jess said,

"Even if we do get help she will bleed out before then." I said,

"Aria's right."

"Then what are we going to do?" Jess said,

"I don't know, we are going in circles now." Something pushed me down, "Holy shit!" Chelsea had me pinned down, she was snarling and trying to bite me. I screamed, "Guys! Get her off me!" I struggled to to push her away. She was stronger than me, a lot stronger, I heard a gunshot and she fell on top of me, dead, "Holy shit..." I gasped,

"Aria are you okay? Were you bitten?" Jess asked,

"No... I don't think so." I checked myself over,

"She's fine..." Brendan said, holstering his gun.

I looked at them, "We have to get out of here." I said,

"Yeah, if Jared was bit then there has to be someone else bit too." Brendan agreed,

"Grab your stuff, we're getting out of here." I decided. They nodded and we went to our rooms, I only had a small backpack to carry a limited amount of stuff, I dumped my textbooks onto the floor with a loud _'thud_ '. A few shirts and jeans were thrown into the bag along with some sweaters and warm clothes, I grabbed the picture of me and my family. It saddened me that I didn't see them before shit went down, I didn't want to think about if my mom and dad made it out, or my sister. I took the photo out of the frame and put it in the inside pocket of my jacket, Brendan and Jess were waiting for me in the living room,

"We grabbed some food from the cupboard." Jessica said,

"Let's split it up." I said. We split the food as evenly as we could and were just about to head out when we heard a commotion in the hallway, someone was yelling, "I'll go check it out." I said, leaving the apartment.

In the hallway there was a military man standing at a doorway down the hall, "Mam, I need you to return to your room immediately." He said to me,

"No way! One of those... Things just bit my friend and turned her and she almost bit me."

"You were in contact with the infection? You need to be quarantined right away." He grabbed my wrist and dragged me down the hall,

"What are you doing?!" I exclaimed trying to pull away,

"We can't risk more people getting infected."

"I'm not the one you should be worried about! There's one of those things in here already!" I kept trying to break free as he led us out of the building. He had an iron grip on me so it was impossible to pull away, but the scenery around us was enough to get him to let go. People were running around screaming as those things... Those zombies chased them. The soldier left me to help some other people, "I gotta go back." I turned to go back to the apartment but there were zombies blocking my path, and I was unarmed. I looked around, I had to find a way out on my own, I started running.

The zombies were everywhere, some eating people, others chasing them. It was like hell came to campus. I was looking back at the mess when I ran into someone, "Ow! Hey!" She said as we fell to the ground,

"Shit, sorry." I got up and helped her up, "Were you on your way out of here too?" I asked,

"Yeah, I just saw one of my roommates turn into one of those things."

"Yeah, my best friend did too and I got separated from my friends."

"C'mon, I think I saw an opening out this way." I nodded and followed her.

We had gotten far from the campus and made it into a building, "We need to get weapons, we can't defend ourselves bare handed." I said, "I'm Aria by the way."

"Zoey... I think we had a class together last fall."

"Yeah, uh... precalc I think."

"With ?"

"Yeah, that class sucked." We both laughed for a second. I looked out at the darkening sky and the burning buildings in the distance, "It's getting late, we should stay here for the night."

"Is it safe?" Zoey asked,

"Probably a lot safer than travelling at night with no weapons." I said,

"Good point." We blocked off the door as well as we could and sat in the dark, "Where do we go now?" She asked,

"I don't know. I thought the campus was safe but look where that got us."

"Yeah... Let's get some sleep. It'll make time pass quicker."

"Alright. Night." I shifted in my corner and closed my eyes.


	2. Chapter 2

**The story of todays update: A pre-story Mini story.**

 **I was in my room, hooking up my xbox to my tv and thinking about Team Fortress 2 (dont ask why) when all of a sudden "SHIT!" I remembered it was friday and I didn't update, "Loki you gotta move!" I moved my cat over so I could use my laptop...**

 **The end!**

 **Now then, I am pleased to say that this is the first update in the last 3 times of me updating that I did not have a problem with uploading that delayed me until saturday... YAY!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~ZombiesXBrainzz~**

 **Chapter 2:The Optimist**

 _*_ **4 years before the infection***

 _My sister was upset as per the norm. She was always upset about something, she was a freshman in highschool, she was having a hard time adjusting. Her weird friend Darcy wasn't doing her any favors, but at least Darcy was willing to be her friend. All she wanted out of life was for people to like her, I never understood why people didn't like her, she was friendly and she was prettier than I was... But I wasn't going to admit it to her. I was standing in the kitchen eating an apple when she came into the house, "I don't get it." She said, "Get what?" I asked through a mouthful of apple, "I thought high school was going to be different, that after I got my braces off I would be a different person, and people would see me differently." I sat my apple down, "Soph, if you're worried that people don't like you, you shouldnt go and change yourself for them." "So what should I do then?" "Keep being yourself, keep your head up, and don't give a shit about what anyone else says if it's judgemental towards you." I put my hand on her shoulder, "They're all assholes anyway." I said, walking away._

 ***Present***

We unblocked the door, "Where do we go now?" Zoey asked,

"I have no idea, we need weapons to defend ourselves, there has to be a gun store or something nearby."

"I'm not from around here, I don't know."

"That makes two of us, let's go." We left the building. Zoey and I managed to get to the next town over without too much trouble, there were a lot of farm fields around that allowed us to see for miles, the zombies weren't really out in the open. When we got into the town a horde of zombies came out of an alley and chased us, "Run!" I exclaimed. We ran to the end of the road, a dead end, "We're trapped!" I exclaimed.

Zoey looked around, "In there!" She pointed to a building to our left.

We both ran inside and blocked the door with a desk, I looked around and noticed we were in an office building. In the back of the building was an emergency exit, "The emergency exit is blocked." I noted,

"Maybe there is rooftop access, we can climb down on the other side."

"Good idea." We went up to the next floor. It was another floor of office cubicles, "Check it out." I ran over to a desk,

"What is it?" She followed behind me,

"You know how to shoot a gun?" I picked up a pistol,

"Sure, I mean, it can't be that hard right?"

I handed her the gun, "Good enough... just don't shoot me." I picked up a pistol too,

"Drop the weapons..." Someone said from behind us. Zoey and I turned around, in the stairwell was an African-American man, he was tall and a little thin, wearing a white shirt with a red tie.

He was pointing two pistols at us, "Shit..." I sat my gun down and put my hands up, Zoey did the same, "Look man, we're from the campus, we're just trying to get to a safe place like everyone else." I said,

"The campus? Isn't that place supposed to be safe?" He asked,

"It was, until the infection got in and all hell broke loose." Zoey said,

"We don't know where we're going and we don't intend on hurting anyone." I said.

The man lowered his gun, "Shit, I'm really sorry. I just don't know who to trust anymore." Zoey and I picked up our pistols,

"I'm Aria." I said, "This is Zoey." I gestured to my companion,

"Call me Louis, how did you get in this building anyway? I thought I blocked the exits."

"The door downstairs wasn't blocked." Zoey said,

"One of my co-workers must have unblocked it when they went to find help."

"There were others here?" I asked,

"Yeah, me and some co-workers blocked ourselves in and they left a few days ago, I assume they didn't make it."

"Well, there is a horde downstairs at the front door and the emergency exit is all blocked off, is there another way out?" I asked,

"Yeah, we made sure we had access on the roof in case we got trapped."

"Awesome. Let's head to the roof." Louis opened the door to the staircase and we walked up a few more flights of stairs to the rooftop.

The cold wind was starting to blow, causing me to shiver a bit, "Over here." Louis said, leading us over to a long wooden plank. We helped him pick it up and lay it over the ledges of the office building and the building next to it, "That should get us across."

We walked one at a time across the plank, "Hey Louis, do you know if there are any gun stores around here?" I asked,

"Sure, there is one a few blocks from here, we could definitely use some better weapons." We climbed down the back fire escape to a back alley, "This way." Louis said, heading down the alleyway.

I shot down some zombies that were following us through the alleys, "The echoing is just drawing more negative attention to us." I said,

"Don't worry, we're almost there." Louis said.

He lead us into an opened area, "Careful guys, it's a wide open area." I said, cautiously walking out into the area. There was a screech from one of the buildings,

"What the hell was that?" Zoey asked, I looked around,

"I don't know, I never heard it before." Louis said.

The screech was louder this time, like it was almost on top of us, a blur flashed across my line of vision right on top of Zoey. It was a zombie, but it wasn't like a normal zombie that was chasing us before, this one was stronger and it leapt like a frog. The zombie was clawing at Zoey, "Get it off of me!" She exclaimed, Louis elbowed the zombie off of her and we both started shooting it.

It fell dead after a few shots, "Zoey!" I ran over to her, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah... I think so." I helped her up.

She was bleeding, "We should get you fixed up." Louis said, "Do any of you two have a first aid kit?"

"No, I haven't seen one around since we left the campus." I said,

"There should be some at the gun store, will you make it till then?" He asked Zoey,

"Yeah... I think so." She groaned,

"C'mon, we better get going before she bleeds out anymore." I said,

"This way." Louis took lead.

Louis lead us to the store, "Here it is."

"Hopefully there are still decent weapons inside." I said.

The windows were broken out and it was dark inside, "Watch your back." Louis said,

"Got it." I opened the door slowly and walked inside, there didn't seem to be too many weapons left inside, "It's clear." I said and grabbed an assault rifle off of the shelf. Louis walked in with Zoey following behind, "Help me look for a first aid kit." I said, walking behind the counter. The display case was empty and wiped clean, I checked the drawers, "Shit..." I stood up, "Find anything Louis?"

"I found some medical tape and a gauze pad, but not a full first aid kit."

"Hmm, those could help but we need some rubbing alcohol or something for a disinfectant. I'll keep looking." Louis sat Zoey down to help her. I went into the back office, "Hmm..." I opened up some cabinets, there were some boxes of ammo and a couple of flashlights. I grabbed everything and threw them in my bag. Inside the desk was a bottle of pills and some rubbing alcohol, "Perfect." I grabbed the items and left. Louis and Zoey were talking when I came back, "Guys, I found some rubbing alcohol, some pain pills, flashlights, and a shit ton of ammo." I handed the rubbing alcohol and the bottle of pills to Zoey.

She took them and started cleaning herself up, "Well, there wasn't much weapons to choose from, but at least we found something." Louis said,

"Yeah, they're better than just pistols, though I suppose we should probably keep the pistols just in case." They nodded.

Zoey stood up, "Are you okay?" I asked,

"Yeah, I feel fine now."

"What do we do now?" We all stood around, no one said anything, nobody had a plan. I looked at them, "You wouldn't happen to know if there are anymore safe zones around would you Louis?"

"No... I hadn't hear anything around, the only thing I heard about was the campus but I never made it out there in time."

"Damn..."

"Do you think that there's somewhere in the city that might have something on where there are safe zones, like a map or something?" Zoey asked,

"It wouldn't hurt to search around."

"Let's go, but stick together." Louis said, taking the lead. I didn't mind that he was willing to be the leader for now, I wasn't one for leading, I'm more of a follower. Louis lead us into some buildings around town, there wasn't much of anything left behind, "Find anything?" Louis asked,

"Nah, nothing." I said, closing a closet door. We regrouped in the lobby of the hotel,

"It'll take too long to search all of these rooms." Zoey said,

"Yeah, and besides, there's a minute chance that we would even find anything in them." We looked at Louis, "Should we keep going?" I asked.

He looked from me to Zoey then down at the ground, "Hmm..." He rubbed his chin in thought. After a few seconds of thinking Louis finally spoke up, "We should keep moving, we don't want to stay in one spot for too long." We nodded and walked out of the hotel.

We started to head out of the town, we didn't know where we were going but the hope was that we would find something soon. I shivered as the wind started to pick up, the sun was setting behind the trees, "We better find a place to stay, I don't want to be stuck out here at night." I said to the others,

"Come on, I know a place we can spend the night." Louis said, leading us down a side road. We climbed over a fence into a backyard of a small white house, the windows were boarded up, but Louis moved bored over to reveal a door, "In here." Zoey and I went inside.

Louis blocked the door behind him, "How did you know about this place?" Zoey asked,

"This is my house... Or it was before shit hit the fan." He walked past us into the living room, Zoey and I followed.

I sat in the corner, Zoey and Louis were already asleep, but I couldn't. There were too many things going on in my mind that kept me up. With a sigh I opened up my backpack to grab out my blanket when a small piece of paper fell out with it. I grabbed it and turned it around, it was the picture of my family when we were on vacation down in Panama, the one I grabbed from my room. I gave a small smile, but it made me sad, I wished I could grab a phone and call my parents and let them know I was okay and I would be home soon, but I couldn't. It was hard to cope with the fact that this was life now, the world didn't belong to us, it belonged to the monsters. With a sigh I wiped the tears off of my face and hugged the picture, "Goodnight guys..." I turned off my flashlight and went to bed.

 ***8 years before the infection***

" _Aria! Look what I can do!" Sophia said, I watched as my 10 year old sister did a back walkover, "That's great Soph..." I said, not taking interest in her childish whims. I was 14, too old and too cool to be seen with my elementary school sister. She kept doing it though, it amused her and kept her from annoying me. Our parents pulled into the driveway, "Finally..." I muttered and got up off of the got out of the car, "Here's a pizza for dinner." Mom said, handing the pizza box to me, "Mom, dad! Wanna see what I can do?!" Sophie asked, coming over to us, "Not now Sophia, we have a lot of work to do." Dad said. Sophie sighed, I opened the pizza box. The pizza was a supreme, just the way I liked it, "We got a supreme like you guys like." Mom said, "But I don't like supreme, I like pepperoni, Aria is the one who likes supreme..." Sophie said, "Then pick off the toppings okay, quit being ungrateful Sophia." My mom said before they both headed inside. I looked down at the pizza then down at my sister, I felt bad, I could see that Sophie wanted to get our parents attention, but never got it. I got an idea, "Follow me." I said, "What?" "Come on." I grabbed her hand and we went inside. I sat the pizza on the kitchen counter, then grabbed my dads car keys, "Aria what are you doing?" Sophie asked, "We're getting what you want." I grabbed some money out of my purse, "We can't take dads car... That's stealing." Oh Soph, so young and naive with her morals, "It's not illegal if we're family, besides, we're going to get cheese burgers because that sounds a lot better than pizza." We walked out the door._

 _It was a fun time, I didn't care even if we both got grounded for what I did, at least I got the worse end of the punishment. That night I was heading to bed when Sophie called me into her bedroom, "Aria..." She whispered, "Yeah?" I walked in, "Thanks for what you did today." I leaned against the doorframe, "Well, I think you deserved it, and mom and dad were being assholes today." Sophie laughed, "It's whatever though, we got to spend together." She nodded, "Yeah..." We sat there for a second, "We should probably go to bed." "Right, night." I left her room._

"Aria... Aria are you awake?" Somebody was shaking me,

"Huh?... Wha-"

"Shh..." Zoey covered my mouth, "I think I heard something outside." She whispered,

"Yeah, there are zombies outside, you're gonna hear something." I whispered back,

"No, this didn't sound like a zombie, this was different. It sounded like a low growl."

"Okay..."

"We should check it out."

I sat up, "You can't be serious."

"What?"

"You want us to go out in darkness in a world infested with zombies to check out a noise? I don't think so, but please, feel free to go out and check on your own, I'm going back to bed." I curled back up under the blanket,

"C'mon Aria, what if it's the military?"

"Zoey, military vehicles do not growl."

"What are you two talking about?" Louis asked,

"Shh, there's something outside making a growling noise and it might hear us."

"You said that it could be a military vehicle." I said,

"I was just saying that to get you to go with me."

I rolled my eyes, "We are not going out there." I said, "It'll be a suicide mission."

"I'll go on my own then, I don't need your help."

"No one is going anywhere alone." Louis said, "If it bothers you that much Zoey then maybe we should check it out. Worst case scenario it's just another zombie."

I rolled my eyes and threw my blanket into my bag, "Fine." I got up and grabbed my gun, "Let's go see what it is."

"Cool." Louis said, grabbing his gun.

We walked outside into the light of a full moon, "Okay Zoey, where is this noise you were hearing because I don't hear anything." I whispered as to not attract the zombies that may have been around,

"You don't hear it?"

"No."

"It's over here." She walked over to the left of the house, Louis and I followed behind. She climbed over the fence into a parking lot of a business,

"Zoey..."

"Shh... Over there!" She pointed across the parking lot.

At first I didn't see anything, but then I noticed an arm waving around, it was a muscular arm and it definitely wasn't human, "Is that a zombie?" I asked,

"Let's go see."

"NO!" I stopped Zoey, "Zoey, your sense of adventure is going to get not only you killed, but us as well."

"I don't need a lecture from a pothead, I can take him on anyway."

"No, no you can't." I was just going to brush off the fact that she called me a pothead, it was true anyway.

She rolled her eyes, "Fine let's just go back to the-" There was a gunshot and a loud roar. The zombie came out from around the corner of the building, only, this wasn't a normal zombie.

This zombie was a towering stack of muscles, it didn't even charge at us using its legs, no, this zombie carried itself using its arms, "Run!" I exclaimed. The others didn't hesitate, we were gone. It came after us, it was slow but it was going to do some damage if it caught up, "Shit, we have to shoot it or it's going to kill us!" I said, shooting at it as I ran. They started doing the same, there was another shooting sound, someone else was shooting too. It caught me off guard for a second, but that second was enough for the zombie to catch up to me and punch me. I went flying down the street and landed on my back, rolling for a few feet. The wind was knocked out of me, it was nothing new to me because it happened to me numerous times during volleyball, but the punch was a new sensation. My glasses fell off my face but I could make out the shapes of Louis and Zoey and the zombie falling dead to its knees.

A blurry figure approached me, "Are you okay?" An unfamiliar rugged voice asked, I looked up and saw the man standing over me holding out his hand to help me up.


	3. Chapter 3

**How is everyone doing? Hope school is well, and college, I did the college thing once, and I couldn't afford to go back... I think its dumb to pay for a higher education but i cant do anything about that...**

 **I need fillers here because I just want this document to exceed 2,000 words so this part of the document isnt important... but the next part is...**

 **or is it?**

 **Its almost 4 am here, and I'm tired, and I couldnt sleep so here we are, there isn't much else I've got to say so...**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~ZombiesXBrainzz~**

 **Chapter 3: I Hate That Guy...**

"Are you okay?" He asked again, he was wearing a white shirt and a leather biker jacket. His head was shaved and he was covered in tattoos, a tough guy so to speak.

I grabbed his hand, "I'm, fine... I'm fine." I said, brushing the dirt off of my clothing.

In all honesty my body ached, everything hurt, "Are you sure you're okay?"

"No... I feel like every bone in me body's broke."

"What?"

"Nothing, it's something from a video game, but I assure you I'm fine."

"Here." He handed me my glasses, there was a slight crack in the one lense,

"Ugh, great." I put them on anyway. Louis and Zoey approached, "Were you the one who shot that zombie?" I asked the biker,

"Maybe I did, what's it to you?"

"You almost got us killed that's what it is to me."

"You're alive aren't you?"

"That's not the point!"

"I think it is."

I growled at him, "Woah woah, calm down you two." Louis said,

"He started it." I grumbled,

"And I'm finishing it, you're both acting like children." I sighed.

The shouting between us caused the unwanted attention from the zombies, "Great, look what you did." The biker said,

"What _I_ did?!"

"Yeah, your bitching got their attention."

"You sure it wasn't your odor?" It was unfortunate that we had a moment of civility for one second before he turned completely asshole on me, such a shame.

We shot at the horde of zombies coming our way, "There's too many of them!" Zoey said,

"This way." The biker said, leading us down an alleyway. We shot at the zombies behind us, "In this building." He opened a door, we filed in and blocked the door behind us, but the zombies were banging on the door.

A chunk of the door started to break off, "Let's get out of here." Louis said, leading us out the front door.

We were well out of the city by the time we took a break, "That was close." I said,

"Yeah it was." Zoey agreed,

"Next time you want to check on a mysterious noise, I will punch you." I said,

"Lesson learned man, lesson learned."

I looked over to Louis, "Where to now?"

"Hmm..." He looked over to the biker, "Got any ideas on where a safe zone is uh..."

"Francis, and yeah, the campus is the nearest safe zone."

"Not anymore." I said, "The infection got in there too. That's where we came from." I said, gesturing to Zoey and I.

Francis gave it a thought, "I couldn't tell you then, I've been too busy being awesome to care about a safe zone."

"That is literally the dumbest thing I ever heard a person say in my life... and I've heard some pretty stupid shit."

"Yeah, and it probably came from your mouth too."

"You know what-"

"Aria, don't start, you saw what happen last time you two started arguing, we need to keep a level head here so we all don't get killed." Louis said, interrupting.

I sighed, "Fine, I will be the bigger person and apologize first to you Francis, I am sorry that I yelled at you and said that you smelled... Even though you do."

"I'm sorry that you decided to be the bigger person in every sense of the word." He smirked,

"Are you calling me fat?"

"I could be."

I pointed my pistol at him, "I'm going to shoot that smirk off your face."

Louis and Zoey held me back, "Enough you two, come on, we have to find a safe zone."

I sighed and lowered my gun, "Fine."

"Okay, by the way Francis I'm Louis and this is Zoey and Aria." Louis introduced us even though Francis already knew my name I'm sure... Unless he was as dumb as he looked and forgot it.

Francis nodded at the introduction, "Alright then ladies, let's go." He took lead instead of Louis, I just shook my head and followed with the others.

Daylight had come and we were miles out from Philadelphia, you could see the smoke from the city over the horizon, "This sucks." I sighed,

"Come on, why don't you look on the bright side?" Louis smiled,

"What possible bright side could there be in a situation like this?"

"You can murder without the cops arresting you." Francis said, "As a matter of fact, you can break every law imaginable and not get arrested."

"I'm sure that getting arrested never stopped you from committing a crime." I smirked,

"You're not wrong."

"You're not one to talk Aria, you know you've broken the law too." Zoey said,

"Shit, you broke the law? What happened, did your dad not give you enough money to go shopping at the mall so you stole stuff?" Francis laughed,

"No, money was never an issue, I used to smoke weed."

"So you're a drug addict? Nice."

"Not anymore, I quit it a long time ago when one of my friends on the volleyball team got caught on a surprised drug test and was kicked off the team, then she dropped out of school... How did you know I was a pothead anyway Zoey?"

"A friend of mine would talk about selling pot to you all the time."

"No way, you were friends with Ethan? He was awesome."

"You probably thought he as only awesome because he sold you drugs." Francis said,

"Come on, he was an awesome person in general, he also bought me Chinese take out when I was drunk once and couldn't drive."

"Yeah, he had the hots for you." Zoey said, "Every day I talked to him it was always 'Aria Aria Aria...'"

"You jealous?"

"No. I-"

"Shh, did you guys hear that?" Louis interrupted. We stopped and listened, it was a groaning sound that we hadn't heard before, or at least I hadn't. Whatever the sound was, it couldn't have been good. I looked at the others, "Let's keep going." Louis said. We followed him down the road again.

The groaning sound got louder, "I don't like not knowing where that sound is coming from." I said,

"Me either. Come on out you wussy." Francis said,

"I don't think calling it out is a good idea." I said. Behind us was a gurgle then the sound of someone vomiting. We were all covered in some gooey slimy shit, "I can't see!" I exclaimed trying to wipe the shit off my eyes, but my whole body was covered.

I could hear the growling of a horde coming towards us, "That can't be good." Zoey said,

"Bring it on, I'm indestructible." Francis laughed,

"Francis you idiot you're not indestructible!" I said trying to shoot in the direction that I heard zombies.

Something exploded behind us, "I think I got it guys." Louis said,

"Nice job." I said, shooting in front of me. I was hit in the leg and fell to my knees "Shit!" I didn't know what got me, but I kept shooting at the zombies while on the ground. Finally the zombies had stopped coming, "Are they all dead?" I asked, "

I think so." Louis said,

"Good." I wiped off my face, "That was so gross." The stinging sensation in my leg came back. I hissed at the pain and observed the damage, there was a hole in my thigh and it was gushing out blood, "What? Who shot me?!"

Francis knelt down to examine the wound, "Does this hurt?" He poked it,

"What the hell?!" I screamed,

"Walk it off, you'll be fine."

"I don't think I can walk, you're going to have to carry me." I smirked,

"Nah, looks like we'll just have to leave you." He stood up,

"We aren't leaving anybody." Louis said, picking me up,

"Thank you Louis." I wrapped my arm around his shoulder,

"Lets get out of the open so we can fix that up." We started to walk. It hurt to put my weight on my right leg but I had to keep going, I wasn't going to be the one that was holding them back. We slowly made our way into a building and blocked the door, the emergency lights were on casting a dim light on the stores bare shelves, I sat myself on the counter, "Here, let me patch you up." Louis said, pulling a first aid kit from his bag,

"Thanks Louis." I smiled at him.

Francis walked up, "I don't know about you guys but I could eat."

"Me too." Zoey said,

"I have some food in my bag, it's not much, just what I had in my apartment." I took off my backpack, "When my friends and I left we split up the food so that's all there is to choose from." I gave the bag to Zoey. She grabbed some food out and handed it to Francis,

"Man, you don't have any meat in here?"

"What?"

"I was kidding. Don't get your panties in a twist."

"I don't wear panties thank you very much."

"I did not need to know that." Louis said, bandaging up my leg.

I shrugged, "Sorry Louis, it is what it is." I smiled at him,

"There, that should do it... though its going to hurt for a bit." He took my hands and helped me off of the counter, "Thanks man." I said, shifting my weight to my left, "Do you want some food?"

"No thanks, I've got my own in here." He pulled a fruit cup out of his bag,

"Alright then." I grabbed a can of pears out of my bag and took the can opener from Francis. We sat in silence as we ate a little bit, I looked down on the floor and noticed a torn piece of paper with something written on it. There was only one little sentence written on the paper, ' _...evacuation in Fairfield PA..."_ Was all the paper read, "Guys, check this out." I handed the paper to Louis. He observed it, "This could be our chance to get the hell out of here and get to safety." I said,

"Aria, you want us to go to ground zero of this infection? It's a suicide mission!"

"Come on, no matter where we go it's going to be a suicide mission with those things out there, and besides, they didn't say for sure that it was the epicenter of the infection."

"Aria, this is taking a pretty big risk."

"What do we have to lose Louis? We don't know where we are going, we are limited on food and ammunition, and there is a good chance that the zombies are going to kill us no matter where we go. Louis, this is our only lead, our only chance that we have to get away from these things!"

Zoey and Francis looked at each other, "I think we should go." Francis said, agreeing with me,

"What other option do we have Louis?" Zoey added.

He sighed, "Alright guys, we'll go to Fairfield." Louis finalized.

I grabbed my bag up off of the floor and threw it over my shoulders, "Come on guys, we're going on a trip."


	4. Chapter 4

**Aye, another friday, another update for you guys, Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far. Its for the most part almost over, like maybe two more chapters or something. Im gonna have to work hard to finish these last two chapters because im basically caught up to where im at on my google drive... which is unfortunate... but whatever.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~ZombiesXBrainzz~**

 **Chapter 4: Old Man Kick Ass**

I wish people had left their cars around so that we didn't have to walk to Fairfield, my leg was killing me! It didn't surprise me that the illness was mutating, but it was mutating fast. We were walking down the road when something grabbed me by the legs and tripped me, I fell face first into the pavement and was being dragged away, "Ah, what the hell?!" Francis shot the zombie before it could get me, "I am sick of these zombies freaking mutating and vomiting on us and jumping on us and shit!" I said getting up,

"Get used to is because it's going to happen a lot." Francis said,

"I should have just stayed in my apartment and live my life in darkness and solitude."

"Geez are you always this negative?"

"Lately, yes."

"Well we gotta keep moving, we can't sit here and complain." Louis said,

"As much as I'd love to you're right, and night is going to fall soon." I agreed. He lead us down the road again, Louis and Zoey were in the front talking while Francis and I hung in the back. I didn't know what to say to him, he was nothing more then a lowlife biker that I shouldn't waste my time on, "I hate injuries..." I said, limping along behind them,

"Me too, I hate all kinds of stuff like cops, lawyers, doctors, hospitals, water-"

"You don't have to list every single thing you hate." I said,

"Don't you have a list of things you hate?"

"Yeah, and I make the top of that list." I kept walking ahead but Francis stopped,

"You hate yourself?" He asked, catching back up,

"I wasn't exactly the best person to people."

"I wasn't the best person either, I don't care, nobody cares if you're an asshole to them."

"You don't understand." I muttered, "And I don't need to explain it to you anyway."

"Man, you're more negative than I am. Maybe you need Louis to fill you with optimism."

"Optimism is going to get us killed..."

"You seemed to be full of optimism back there."

"I think I was just trying to fool myself."

He shrugged, "You could have fooled me... How's the leg?"

"It hurts like a bitch."

"Sorry, I think I was the one who shot you."

"Well in your defense you couldn't see where you were shooting... But do it again and I'll take your shotgun and shove it up your ass."

"Seems fair, I would worry more about the other two shooting you though."

"Zoey isn't too bad, she seems to know what she's doing, I think Louis is the one we should watch out for." I laughed slightly. There was a growling noise, "It's one of those jumpers again." I said,

"Jumpers?" Francis asked,

"Yeah, we ran into one on the way to the gun store and it got Zoey."

"Oh, one of those wussies."

"Watch your backs." Zoey said. Francis and I both turned to make sure we didn't get jumped from behind,

"I feel like I'm at a college frat party always watching my back and shit." I said,

"Tell me about it, those parties got real strange real quick." Zoey said.

The jumper screeched but we still didn't see it, someone screamed from one of the alleys, but it was a man's scream, "Over here!" I said, running towards the source of the scream. There was a man pinned on the ground, he was struggling against the jumper that was on him. I shot the zombie off of him with my pistol and ran over to him, "Are you okay?" I asked. The man was older, a lot older, like in his sixties. He was wearing a green army coat and white t-shirt, and had a green beret on his head.

He may have been old, but I could tell that he was experienced with a gun, "I'm fine miss." He got up on his own and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, lighting it, "Thanks for the help." The others joined up behind us, "You with them?" He asked,

"Yeah, my name's Aria and this is Louis, Zoey and Francis." I said, gesturing to them,

"Hey Aria, looks like you've found a fossil." Francis said.

I rolled my eyes, "Sorry, Francis is an asshole."

"Where are you folks heading to?"

"As crazy as this sounds, Aria suggested we go to Fairfield." Louis said,

"I heard the military is evacuating there, I was heading there as well."

"Would you like to join us? Five guns are better than one." I asked,

"Aria, we don't want this old man in our group, he'll slow us down." Francis said,

"Shut up Francis, we'll leave you here and take him with us, is that what you want?" I asked, he muttered under his breath,

"I like you kid, you seem like you don't take shit from nobody."

"Thanks uh..."

"Bill, call me Bill."

"Right, would you like to join us Bill? You can just ignore Francis, that's what I've been doing."

"Alright, I'll join your group, we're all heading to the same place anyway."

"You guys okay with that?" I asked Louis and Zoey,

"The more people we have the more we can cover each others backs." Louis said, Zoey nodded in agreement,

"Let's get going to Fairfield." Bill said, taking the lead. Without any questions we followed him, I walked next to Bill in the front this time, "Are you from this area?" He asked me,

"I went to college in Philadelphia, but I'm originally from Florida."

"You're quite a ways from home."

I nodded, "If I could, I would go down to Florida just to see if they are okay."

"You might think family is important, but in a world like this you have to put your safety first." Maybe he was right, my family was thousands of miles away, and I wasn't getting to them anytime soon, should I forget about them for now?

I sighed, "What about you? You have any family, children, grandchildren-"

"It's not important kid, you can't think back on your past mistakes now."

I nodded, "You're right I guess... So, do you know how far it is to Fairfield?"

"If we keep walking and don't stop then it should be a couple of hours."

"Is it safe to travel at night?" I asked, adjusting my glasses,

"No, we'll find a place to stay, you don't look like you're going to make it much farther on that leg of yours." When he brought it up was when I noticed that the pain was worse now than it was before,

"I'll be fine, it's just a small wound. We don't need to stop for me."

He just shook his head, "If you insist kid."

We walked for about an hour in silence, I was walking with Francis again, but neither of us said anything to each other. The sun was setting behind the clouds casting an orange glow above, the fall wind was blowing but today it wasn't cold, it was pleasant. I closed my eyes and breathed in the fall scent, it was one I grew to love in my years of being in Pennsylvania. Around us were woods where the trees that covered the road above us, creating a canopy, "Why are you smiling?" Francis asked,

"Huh?" I didn't notice I was smiling until he said something, "Oh, I didn't know I was smiling." I said, "What? You've never smiled before?" I asked,

"I hate smiling."

"Of course you do." I rolled my eyes.

From the woods there was a loud roar, "What the hell is that?" Zoey asked, I heard what sounded like a stampede and the crunching of leaves and sticks in the woods.

A giant log came flying flying towards us but was blocked by a tree, "Shit, it's one of those giant things!" I exclaimed. The zombie came bursting through the trees, "Run!" I said, turning and shooting.

The others followed me, "Split up so we all don't get hurt." Bill said.

We nodded and split in different directions, the zombie was chasing after me and I was shooting at it when my leg gave out and I fell to the pavement, "Shit." I rolled over and saw the thing still coming at me, "Shit, shit, SHIT!" I pulled my pistol out and started shooting it. The zombie wasn't slowing down, and I couldn't get away from it. Suddenly I heard glass shatter and a wall of fire erupted in front of me, I backed away from it as the zombie emerged from the flames in a towering inferno, "God dammit." I said, but the zombie changed its direction and was heading for Bill now. I still shot at it from the ground as Bill made a wide loop around some trees and shot at the zombie. The thing finally fell dead in a pile of burning flesh, "Holy shit." I said,

"Hey, you okay?" Louis asked, rushing to my side, "I'm fine, my leg just kinda gave out you know."

"Here." He handed me my gun and helped me up, "You gonna be able to walk?"

"I don't... think so?" I was starting to feel dizzy, the environment around me was spinning,

"Aria?" The others came over. I groaned, "We better get her out of the open." Louis said,

"No, no, I'm fine... I'm just dizzy."

Louis scooped me up in his arms, "You're not fine Aria."

"Yes I am, mom." I laughed through the searing pain,

"She just called you mom." Francis laughed,

"Come on, there's gotta be a safe spot past these woods." Bill said, leading the way.

As they walked I stared up at the trees above, if this was the way I was going to die, at least I didn't get bitten. I could feel the temperature dropping, I think, maybe it was just me. The sun had faded away into night time, "You still alive back there?" Bill asked,

"Yeah, I told you guys I'm okay... I'm just gonna nap for a few minutes is all." I could feel my eyelids getting heavy,

"Aria, you are not taking a nap." Louis said,

"Why not?"

"Because you can't."

"That's not a good reason..."

"Bill-"

"We're almost out of here." Bill said. I started tuning out what they were saying as I let my eyes close slowly without saying anything to Louis.

 ***Two days after first infection***

 _It was late at night on a Friday, I was outside a bar talking on my phone with my sister, her emotional state had taken a turn for the worst since I had left for school, it usually did, but this time it was worse, like ending it worse. I noticed a drunken biker guy walk out of the bar with a girl but I didn't care about them at the current moment, "Sophie, I know mom and dad are hard on you but you gotta look forward to what you have going for you. You're a senior in high school with a full ride to Harvard! I would kill to have a full ride to any college. You aren't me Soph, you're smarter than me okay, and you're gonna find you a man someday who will treat you like a queen, but your life isn't over yet, not by a long shot." I said, she sniffled on the other end, "This sucks Aria." "Don't worry, I'll be home next weekend, I already booked a flight for break, mom and dad don't need to know, but we can hang out maybe go to the mall or have a spa day or something." She sniffled again but I could almost hear her smiling, "Thanks... But what about that flu going around?" "Oh, that's nothing, it'll come and go like all the other diseases." "Okay, I've gotta go to bed, Darcy and I are working on a project for school tomorrow." "Okay, night sis. I love you" "Night Aria, I love you too." I closed my cellphone and clenched it tight. I started to cry, my whole life I had done nothing but treat Sophia like garbage and so did my parents, she didn't deserve it, and she almost took her life because of it. I wiped the tears from my face before leaving to go back to my apartment._

I woke up, shivering, it was dark and everyone was asleep. I could hear the pattering of rain on the rooftop, and the pain in my leg came back, but it was a dull pain this time. Without making a sound I got up and limped into another room that had a door leading out to a balcony, and that's where I went. I pulled my hood up as I sat on the cold wet metal, my legs dangling over the edge. It was peaceful, being alone in the rain, I could always gather my thoughts, even the bad ones. I thought about how I never did go home to see Sophie, never had that spa day with her, never went to the mall... But at least I told her I loved her, and she knew that much. Then my thoughts went to my parents, the parents who loved me... Only me, I was their pride and joy, their golden prodigy, and Sophia was not. It wasn't fair, I didn't see it until I went to college that she was treated like dirt. I pulled the picture out of my pocket and observed it again, we looked like a happy family but it was all fake, and it made me angry. I tore my parents half out of the picture and crumpled it up, throwing it off of the balcony. It fell down into the murky wet streets below, "You know you could get sick sitting out in the rain." A voice said from behind me, almost giving me a heart attack,

"Well, I guess almost anything can make you sick nowadays." I said as Louis sat next to me,

"Bill said you were losing a lot of blood, but he fixed you up right and gave you some pain medication. I'm surprised you were bleeding so much from just a bullet wound."

I sighed, "That's not the only place I was losing blood..." I pulled up my sleeve to reveal a bite mark on the inside of my arm near my elbow, where I was bitten by my best friend, "This happened the day I left the campus with Zoey, I thought I was going to turn but it's been days now and nothing has happened... It just keeps bleeding."

"Well shit, why didn't you say something?"

"Because I didn't want you guys to kill me."

"Look, Aria." He showed me his forearm. It was hard to see at first but I noticed it, there was a bite mark similar to the one I had, "I got this two days after the infection showed up, the others, they're all bitten too."

"What does it mean?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Somehow we have some kind of immunity to it. Almost as if we can't really die but I wouldn't go telling Francis that." I laughed slightly and covered up my arm, pocketing my picture in the process. He looked at the city all around us, "Bill said we should be able to make it to Fairfield by tomorrow."

"If we don't get attacked by those things out there and get killed."

"Nah, we'll be fine. I have a good feeling about this."

"That's not what you said when I brought it up."

"Okay so maybe I was wrong, but if Bill thinks that it's a good idea then maybe there's nothing to worry about."

I nodded and leaned forward, folding my arms on the wet railing in front of me. I sighed, "How are you always so positive?"

He shrugged, "I don't know, I just like being positive, I've always been positive. Why don't you be positive sometimes?"

I shook my head, "I don't know, I didn't have a particularly great life, I had done things I regret. I mean, people would probably say I had a great life and I did, but it wasn't so great for my younger sister... I treated her like shit for like 10 years."

"I'm sure you loved your sister no matter how bad you treated her." I groaned and laid my head on my arms.

Louis patted me on the back, "Your sister is probably out there in a safe zone right now worrying about what her older sister is doing." Maybe he was right, instead of thinking that my sister was dead out there I should have thought of the best case which was that she was alive and well, I mean I doubted it though.

I shook the thought out of my head, "Right... We should go back inside before we get sick... or attacked." I said, getting up. Louis nodded and followed behind.


	5. Chapter 5

**Yay! Another Friday, another chapter! Hope everyone is enjoying the story so far, one more chapter to go! *yawn* I'm going to go take a nap now.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~ZombiesXBrainzz~**

 **Chapter 5: No Man Left Behind... Or Woman.**

In the morning we got up, "How are you feeling?" Bill asked,

"I'm fine, like for real fine. Thanks." I said,

"Glad we're all feeling fine, but can we get our asses moving?" Francis asked,

"I hate impatient people." I smirked,

"Hey, me too... Wait-"

"Come on, let's go." Bill said, leading us out, I followed behind him. We journeyed down 5 flights of stairs before walking out onto the street, "If we keep south on this road here then we should make it into Fairfield in no time." Bill said,

"Let's not waste any time standing here then." I said, Bill nodded and went ahead with Louis leaving Zoey, Francis and I in the back of the group.

The rain was still falling down, but it was lighter, more of a drizzle now, "I hate the rain." Francis said,

"Shh, Francis, did you hear that?"

"What?"

"How nice it sounded when you weren't bitching about something?!"

The others laughed at my remark, "She got you good Francis." Zoey said,

"Whatever." He rolled his eyes and we walked in silence as we headed out of the town.

We walked down a highway that was littered with abandoned vehicles, I squeezed between two vehicles, "Thank god I went on a diet." I muttered to myself,

"I hate..." I glared at Francis who was smirking at me, I think he was starting to do that to annoy me, it was working, but I couldn't let him know.

Bill stepped onto the bridge in front of us that was miles long and was a long ways above a river, "Be careful, we don't want anyone falling off of the bridge." He climbed over a truck that was blocking the way.

I climbed up on the truck I lost my footing and almost fell but Louis caught me, "Better watch your step miss slip and fall." Francis laughed as he climbed up onto the truck.

I rolled my eyes, "Thanks Louis." I said as he helped me back up onto the truck, I climbed over to the hood and Bill grabbed my hand to help me back down, "Thanks Bill." I said,

"Don't mention it." He said.

Louis hopped down next to me, "This traffic jam seems to go on for miles."

"Who knows what happened that they were left here." I said,

"I think it's best not to think about it." I nodded and walked forward through the cars. The rain was picking up again, and the wind was blowing it in our faces. I trudged through it and approached a familiar looking car, it had a Florida license plate on it. Upon closer inspection I saw that it was a blue SUV, the back of the car was packed to the brim with clothes and suitcases. I walked around the vehicle and approached the driver side window, hoping there weren't dead bodies on the inside. The inside was empty I sighed with relief and opened the door, the car still smelled the same as I remembered it, almost like a new car smell, but that was because mom kept it clean on a weekly basis. Her sunglasses were inside the overhead compartment, I grabbed them and put them in my bag, they were mine now. On the floor under the gas pedal was moms notepad for work, I picked it up and looked at it. The first couple of pages were nothing interesting, just some notes mom took on her patients, but then the fourth page in had something different written on it. It was a letter in my mom's handwriting, written to me,

 _Aria,_

 _Your father and I were trying to get you out of Phili before this sickness got too bad, truth is, nowhere is safe, we tried to go with CEDA down in Florida but they were gone. We went to get you on the hopes that you were still alive, maybe you are, maybe you're not, but we can't save you now. We couldn't save ourselves, hell, we couldnt even save your sister. Of all the things in my life I regret, you and Sophia were not one of them, Sophia didn't get the recognition she deserved, and that's what I regret, your father did too. If you are alive and reading this then there is still hope that you can get out alive and healthy. It was too late for your father and I, he was attacked by one of those things and didn't make it. I went on without him, hoping I could find you until I ended up on this bridge. There is no way out for me that is good, it's the end for me, but not for you. Aria, we loved you and your sister so much even if we didn't show it a lot. If you ever find your sister please let her know that we are sorry for what we did to her... Please?_

 _With Love,_

 _Mom_

I was in complete shock at the letter, it was bullshit, all of it. She never cared about Sophie, and I'm she only cared about me when it was convenient to her and my dad. How dare she make it out that she was some kind of concerned parent with all these regrets, if she regretted how she treated Sophie then maybe she shouldn't have treated her like that. I ripped the page from the notebook and was about to rip the note up, but I didn't. Something stopped me, a picture fell out of the notepad onto my lap. I picked it up, it was my sister and I when she stayed up in Phili with me for a week. I was surprised my parents were willing to drive her up here and paid for her to fly back. I had taken the picture the first day she showed up and we went to a campus event together and sent the picture back home, I didn't think my mom would actually keep it.

I sighed and folded up the note and put it in my bag along with the picture, "Aria?" Louis asked from outside,

I got out of the car, "What?"

"You okay?"

"I'm fine, I was just looking." I headed to the back of the SUV and opened the hatch. My moms suitcase was laying on the bottom of pretty much the whole house. I pulled it out and unzipped it, I grabbed some of her clothes out of the bag and threw it in my bag,

"What are you doing?" Louis asked,

"Looting my parents car..." I searched through the other bags and took any food or supplies. The others gathered around, "Hm..." I finished searching, "I think that's everything, it should last us a while." I gently closed the hatch so not to cause any unwanted attention. We continued through the maze of cars, there was a growl followed by a screech, "Watch out!" I exclaimed as one of those leaper zombies jumped from behind a car. It went past me and jumped Louis, I turned and went to shoot it but something else grabbed me and started dragging me towards the edge of the bridge, "Agh, what the hell?!" I tried to pull myself away from the zombie dragging me towards the edge but it was too strong. The zombie dragged me over the edge, I grabbed the ledge of the bridge, "Shit... SHIT!" I exclaimed,

"Don't worry, I'm coming." Zoey said.

I heard gunshots and a car alarm started going off, "This cant be good." I muttered to myself as the roar of the horde sounded in the distance, "Guys... I could use some help." I said as I tried to adjust my grip to hang on. The rain was making me slip faster, I went to pull myself up but my one hand slipped, "Shit!" I looked down at the murky water below, it was brown and pretty gross, even if I were to let go and land in the water there was a fallen tree down there that would impale me, or I would get dragged down by the strong current. Above me on the bridge I could still hear them shooting at the horde as the alarm was still going off, there was an explosion, like they shot one of those vomiting zombies. My knuckles started turning white as I clung for dear life to the bridge, "Guys! I can't hold on much longer here!" My hand started slipping, I had to let go. I released my grip and was prepared to fall to my death when someone grabbed my wrist. I looked up and saw Francis holding my wrist, "For the love of god, please don't let me go." I said,

"Come on, don't worry, I gotcha. Up you go."

I grabbed his wrist with both hands and he helped me up to steady ground, "Thanks, I owe you one." I instantly regretted my words as they escaped my mouth, but he saved my life,

"Don't mention it, besides, Bill said no one gets left behind."

"Gee thanks." I picked up my gun off of the ground. The area looked like a crime scene, there was blood and bodies everywhere, "Holy shit, what happened up here?" I asked,

"Zoey shot the car trying to get the zombie off of Louis then one of those vomiting bastards came around and then the car alarm went off, and after that shit hit the fan."

"Yeah, looks like it."

We regrouped with the others, "Everybody okay?" Bill asked,

"I'm fine." I said, Louis nodded. He was scratched up, but it wasn't anything major.

Bill looked us all over again just to make sure that we weren't lying, "Alright then, let's get moving, Fairfield isn't too far past the bridge." He led on, we looked at each other before following behind him.

I sighed as we trudged down the highway occasionally shooting zombies that ran at us, "Man, I don't think I've walked this much in my entire lifetime." I groaned,

"Come on, I'm sure you have." Louis said,

"Not continually... With a bum leg."

"You're beginning to sound like Francis."

"What did you say?"

"Nothing, I didn't say a word."

"Good because if you compare me to Francis one more time then I'll break both of your kneecaps."

"Sorry, damn girl you don't need to be so violent."

"I'm joking, I won't break both of them, just the one." I smirked, he shook his head. We approached a sign that read ' _Fairfield exit 121'_ , I sighed with relief, "We're almost there!" Though, what are we going to do when we got to whatever _there_ may have been? I didn't think about it, Bill had a plan, he seemed to always have one.

We walked up to the off ramp, "There it is." I said, looking at the city. In the distance I could see a hospital towering over the other buildings, but the whole town seemed dead,

"Are you sure they're evacuating here?" Zoey asked,

"That's what the reports were saying." Bill said,

"Maybe they're farther in the city." Louis said, following behind Bill as we made our way into the city. The buildings were large as if we were in Philadelphia, which was bad if there were any smokey-tongue zombies up there... Smokers? I'll call them that, the name seems appropriate.

I was checking the rooftops when I nearly ran into Francis, "Watch it." He said,

"Sorry, I was checking the rooftops for smokers."

"Smokers?"

"Yeah, the ones that have the tongue and they drag you around and shit."

"Nice..." I looked ahead.

The road was barricaded with cement barriers that we couldn't climb over, "Where are we going to go now?" I asked.

Bill looked around, "We'll have to cut through the alleys." He looked at an alley to the left of us. It was dark down the alley, the darkness was enough to make me cringe. It was a bad idea, going down there, we all knew it, but we didn't want to say anything.


	6. Chapter 6

**Another Friday means another update which means another thing for you to read, crazy how that works huh?  
...I'm being snowed in... someone help me please... PLEASE!**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~ZombiesXBrainzz~**

 **Chapter 6: The Beginning of the End**

I gripped my assault rifle tightly as I looked up at the rooftops, the sky was darkening above us and the clouds made it seem even darker than it was. We approached a pile of corpses, "Hold up." Bill said, holding up his hand to signal us to stop. He knelt down to examine the bodies, "Ain't seen anything like this before." He examined a goo like substance from a body,

"Jesus, don't let that stop you from smearing it all over yourself." Francis said.

Bill glared at Francis and stood up, turning towards them, "They're changing." Bill said, wiping his hand on Francis' vest,

"Agh, dammit Bill, oh it stinks!" Francis tried wiping off his vest.

Louis and I laughed when suddenly a crying noise filled the air. Francis looked at me, "Haha, very funny." I rolled my eyes, we all turned towards a door on the building next to us, the source of the crying was coming from inside,

"Someone's still alive." Zoey said. Francis, Louis, and I stood as a lookout while Zoey and Bill went inside.

Overhead a bolt of lightning cracked across the sky, not something I was particularly fond of, thunderstorms just freaked me out sometimes. I was still looking up at the sky when I heard the growl and the footsteps of the horde echoing off of the buildings.

The zombies emerged from the fog at a quick pace, "Oh shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" Louis ran off to warn Bill and Zoey while Francis and I stayed back and held them off.

It was a total shit show, just a barrage of zombies coming at us from the front and now the back. Francis beat back a zombie with the butt of his gun and shot its head clean off, "Stick together." He shouted over the echoes of gunshots and zombies. I stepped closer to the others when I heard a familiar growl of a smoker about to attack.

It grabbed Bill and dragged him away from us, "Bill!" I exclaimed,

"Hang on!" Francis shot the smoker that was on the fire escape, it exploded in a plume of green smoke.

Bill fell to the ground so Francis went over to help him, "Guys!" Zoey exclaimed, I turned and saw Francis shoot two zombies that were about to attack him, and he did it in an almost bad ass sort of way,

"Merry Christmas." He smirked and joined Zoey, Louis, and I. More zombies were coming towards us, more than any other horde I had seen since I left the campus.

Zoey reached to her side and pulled something from her belt loop, "Fire in the hole!" She tossed what I had now noticed was a pipe bomb, it bounced and ticked away from us, the zombies gladfully chasing after it instead of us,

"Shit!" I ducked down behind a dumpster with Bill and Francis.

The explosion was ear splitting and I thought I was going deaf, but I heard the helicopter flying overhead, its spotlight shining down on us. Bill helped me to my feet, "Hey! We're over here! We're not infected! Down here!"

I heard Louis shout as he chased after the helicopter from the street, "Louis!" Zoey and I went after him.

There was a screech and in the blink of an eye there was a leaper on top of Louis, "Aah! GET IT OFF ME!" He exclaimed.

I hit the zombie off of him with the butt of my gun and all three of us shot at it with our pistols. The zombie fell dead on top of a car, causing the alarm to go off, "Aah, this is gonna get bad." Bill said, joining us.

I could hear the roar of zombies again as I helped Louis to his feet, "Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet." I said, adjusting my glasses. We walked out into the street to observe the challenge ahead, the zombies were climbing the fences and just coming out of every alley and building around us almost like they were just spawning from nowhere! I backed up towards Louis and Francis, clutching onto my gun and hoping we would make it through this alive, I mean, it was just a few commons right?

Behind us was a familiar roar and the sound of crunching metal, I turned just in time to see a car rolling towards us, nearly missing Zoey by a few feet. The tanky zombie came barreling toward us, punching the weak little zombies out of its way, "Run or shoot?" Louis asked as we started backing up, "Run or shoot?!"

"Both." Bill said and we took off towards another alley, shooting at the zombie behind us.

We rounded another corner to another alley, "Get to the roof!" Louis pointed to a fire escape,

"Go! Go! Go!" Francis stayed back to cover our behinds.

The others let me up first, probably because I was injured still, I climbed up the ladder and up the stairs before stopping to help cover the others so they could get up. The tank hit Francis against the wall, Bill went to help him by shooting the tank, it tore a hole in the wall of the building across from us. It grabbed a chunk of rock and tossed it towards us, "Heads up!" Louis said as he pulled me out of the way to avoid further injury.

Zoey stopped to help Bill, "Go, I'll hold them off!" She exclaimed, shooting any zombies that came near him. I went and helped her, the tank jumped onto the fire escape, the metal was crumbling under its weight like paper, but it was still climbing to get to Bill.

Luckily Louis helped Bill onto the rooftop then came and got me, "Thanks..." I said,

"Don't thank me yet." He said, copying our situation from like, 5 minutes ago.

The tank was pulling the fire escape down, almost taking Zoey with it, "Francis!" She exclaimed, he reached out his hand and grabbed her. The whole fire escape crumbled down to the alley below, crushing the tank beneath it as it let out a final roar.

Francis pulled Zoey up and sat down next to me to catch his breath, we were all pretty much gasping for air, "We made it, I can't believe we made it!" Louis said, looking at me,

"Son, we just crossed the street." Bill said, lighting a cigarette, and taking a puff of it, "Let's not throw a party 'til we're out of the city." He got up and walked away from us. We stayed sitting on the step for a minute, I ran my hands through my hair shakily, I had never shook so much in my life. I wasn't sure if it were my nerves or if was some kind of adrenaline rush, but I wasn't too fond of it.

Francis got up, "You gonna be okay?" He asked, for once he wasn't being a total ass to me almost like when I first met him a few days ago.

I nodded, "I'm fine." He held out his hand to help me up, I grabbed it and got up. After a few shaky steps I was able to gather my bearings and group up with the others. Overhead was a tarp that was covering us from the rain that started to fall, I could hear thunder in the distance... No, something else.

The helicopter that passed us by earlier came back around, "To anyone who can hear this, proceed to Mercy Hospital for evacuation. Repeat, proceed to Mercy Hospital for evacuation." The helicopter flew away, leaving us standing in the rain, but this time, we had a place to go.


	7. AN: Next Story

**Hey everyone, new story is up, you know... the sequel. The one called Merciless... Yeah that one, its up on my profile if you want to check it out... I know you do.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **~ZombiesXBrainzz~**


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